Nancy Richmond - Cheaha Mountain Rainbows
CD
Order
Sweet Wreath presents the story of an Alabama artist with a rare gift for melody who channeled her experience into song after song like a true legend - fame and fortune be damned.
Nancy Richmond wrote over a hundred songs from the 1970s onward, exploring the emotional arcs of manic depression, relationships, and motherhood in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Her musical basis lay in the folk-rock zeitgeist of the late 60s, but she developed a home-spun style of her own that allowed her to sing with a sweet gentleness and humor. She wrote country-tinged love spells, lullabies about fantastic creatures, and songs about hitchhiking. Her artwork on the album cover depicts a time when she lived in a "magic cabin" in California during her travels. Back in Birmingham, she performed at local hangouts like Ranelli's and Cobb Lane Restaurant, at various parties and coffee houses, and on the street in Five Points South.
Aside from a couple demo tapes made in the 1980s and 90s (in the hopes of striking a record deal in Nashville), most of Nancy's music wasn't recorded until much later when she was in her 50s and 60s. Despite working in almost total obscurity, she kept her songs alive by playing them for herself and her family over the years, writing lyrics in a spiralbound notebook until it was completely full. After meeting experimental musician Jasper Lee in 2006, the two began recording Nancy's guitar and vocal songs with Jasper accompanying on various instruments and bringing in other players to expand her sound. Over the course of twelve years they documented around fifty of Nancy's songs and eventually compiled an album of favorites in 2018, making a small edition of CDs for family and friends. She called it Cheaha Mountain Rainbows after the highest peak in Alabama, a place that she loved to escape to and hike with her husband Brian in the cool days of autumn.
Cheaha Mountain Rainbows is now being released on Sweet Wreath in an updated form to include Nancy's early demos and offer a detailed chronicle of her musical world. The culmination of this project comes in the wake of Nancy's passing in the spring of 2024; it is an homage to a dear friend and kindred creative spirit. "I've always loved her songs and hoped to get Nancy's music out to more people," Jasper says. "She was so funny and captivating, a great storyteller. When I first met her, I was amazed at how many songs she had, and how she knew most of them from memory. Some of her music was written in the 70s, but hadn't ever been recorded, so it was like finding lost treasure...
music from a mythic era. It's interesting to think about Nancy carrying these around in her head for 25 or 30 years before we recorded them. That's pretty unusual and incredible. She seemed like a lost "lady of the canyon"...a singer in the vein of Linda Perhacs or Vashti Bunyan that went completely under the radar...even more so than they did. She never made the connections that might have led to even a small amount of exposure. She tried a couple times to find a way into a musical career, but was really wary of getting ripped off, and rightly so. One time she drove to a recording studio in Nashville with a demo tape and they said, "What's a nice girl like you doing trying to get into this business? This is a dirty business." She meticulously mailed all her lyrics to the U.S. copyright office so she had a record of when they were written, in case anyone ever tried to claim one of her songs as their own. She was confident in the quality of her material....just listen to Proud to Be My Man or Let's Play Pretend. Those sound like prime time at the Grand Ole Opry. My favorites are songs like Honey Bathing Lemon Rinds, where she gets into some mystical terrain and you're not quite sure what's going on, but it's totally enchanting.”
The Ballad of Magic Cabin
One of Nancy's classic songs "The Ballad of Magic Cabin" tells the epic story of her travels across the country and through California in 1973, as depicted on the album cover.
Jasper:
Tell me again about the Ballad of Magic Cabin.
Nancy:
Well, it's about when I was hitchhiking and I was trying to get to Neil Young's ranch. I ended up in the mountains, close to Santa Cruz and close to Los Gatos. Los Gatos means the city of cats and that's mentioned in the song. Anyway, I got stuck in this house with this guy who picked me up. And he gave me drugs. I thought I was just smoking pot, but it was something much stronger than that...it probably was PCP. I don't know for sure what he gave me, but I know it knocked me out. Anyway, he left and while he was gone I came to and these two guys came over, probably looking for drugs. And I left with them and went back to the cabin where they were living. And it was out in the country. Nothing was around there. And it belonged to some girl they knew. It was very crude and it had no running water and no electricity. They had built a shower outside that you could haul water to from somewhere and take a shower. But they didn't have much to eat. The only food they had was a big huge box full of granola; just plain granola, which is not very tasty at all. I tried eating different combinations of granola and water. And they just lived there, and their names were Donny and Charlie. And Donny was the drummer, and that's why there's drums in the picture. I don't really remember if he actually had drums or not. I do remember he had drum sticks, but I don't know if he had drums. Anyway...I fell in love...I was always falling in love. I fell in love with so many people Jasper. Anyway, I fell in love with Donny and really enjoyed living there. And then this girl came named Vicky, and she used to look with the eyes of a serpent....she stole him away from me (and I believe she stole my clothes too.) She didn't even care about him at all. The reason I knew that was because the guy who had given me the drugs that knocked me out came over to the cabin one day when she was there.
And she said, "Who is that?"
And I said, "That's who I was with before I was with Donny."
And she said, "You left him for Donny? Gosh, he's a fox."
And he was really good looking, but he was a big jerk. And when she said that I knew that she didn't care about Donny.
Jasper:
How long were you there for?
Nancy:
I was there off and on. I would hitchhike to other places and then come back there. I don't really remember how long...I would say probably off and on for about six weeks.
Jasper:
And is there a dog in this picture?
Nancy:
Yeah, JJ - his name is Jumpin' Jack Flash. And they called him JJ.
Jasper:
It looks like a really colorful dawg.
Nancy:
Well, that's imaginary...
Jasper:
So there's two women in the picture? Is that you?
Nancy:
Yeah, I'm the one that doesn't have the wild hair. It really looks nothing like me - but that's supposed to be me.
Jasper:
I see...I just love how that picture matches up with all the details of the song. And so after that you kept hitchhiking through California?
Nancy:
Yeah, I did...I finally got to Neil Young's ranch. My brother had told where it was. I started hitchhiking and I was manic as all get out. I thought I was invincible. Anyway, I had started out by going to Miami. My brother was in this group of people called the Arica Institute. And they had centers at different cities in the United States. And they were into meditation, and strange music, and massage, and things like that. And anyway, I don't know how I found them. I got in touch with them somehow in Miami, and I was staying there. And my parents were just at their wit's end, you know, because I was hitchhiking everywhere. And of course, they were worried sick about me. But I was just hell bent on getting to California - so they sent me money to fly to California to be with my brother, who lived in Los Angeles. So...little did they know, but as soon as I got with my brother...he knew Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He had met them in Big Sur. And I don't know where he met Neil Young...I mean, he might not have even met him, but he did know where he lived. So he told me where Neil Young lived. He said, "He lives at the end of Bear Gulch Trail, in Redwood City." So I just took off hitchhiking to Redwood City. And my brother didn't even try to stop me. So my poor parents, you know, they just wasted their money. I got a ride up there and the guy let me out at the end of Bear Gulch Trail. And so I walked up a path and I thought that I had found Neil Young's house, because the path had little signs with rainbows and things like that on it that looked like hippies was there. And I got up to the house and it was just a low ranch style house. And no kidding, there were about 100 cats sitting around the house. And they were motionless. They were just sitting there. And it was so bizarre. And anyway, I knew that wasn't the right place. So I went back down. And then I saw that there was another house that was to the right at the end of Bear Gulch Trail. And it had a fence that said "No Trespassing". Well, I just climbed over the fence and I started walking down the road. And so...these two cowboys in a jeep came driving slow up to me as I was walking down this long road...down to the house.
And they said, "This is private property. Didn't you see the sign?"
And I said, "Yeah, I saw the sign, but I came to be with a friend of my brother's." (That was stretching it...)
Anyway, they said, "Oh, and we bet we know who that friend is."
And I said, "Yeah..."
And they said, "You can't see him."
And I said, "Well I came all the way from Birmingham, Alabama."
And I said, "You know, a lot of people in Alabama don't even like Neil Young because of Southern Man, and Alabama, those songs that he wrote."
And they said, "Well, you still can't see him."
And I said, "Well, I know he has a new baby, and I could be the babysitter."
And they said, "That kid has plenty of babysitters." And so they told me...they said,
"I'll tell you what, you'll have to leave...but if you're here at eight o'clock in the morning, you can meet him."
And I said, "Okay." And so I tried to wait outside the fence. It was a gate, you know, like a big steel gate. Anyway, I tried to wait, but it was soooo cold. I knew that if I didn't walk I was gonna freeze. It was really cold in the mountains in California, even though it was summer. It was really super cold at night. And so I started walking...I walked for hours. It was a really long trail back to the main road. And I couldn't see any lights, I couldn't see any houses, and I just kept walking along and I kept thinking - "this is Bear Gulch Trail." And I was really terrified but I kept on walking. And one time this big animal crashed across the road in front of me. And that was probably a deer...But you know, it could have been a bear. Anyway, I was really scared. And I finally got back to the road and was standing there. Now the road was bad out in the country too - it was just a little two-lane highway. And I think I hiked from sunset to about midnight. That's how long it took me to walk that distance.
And so these two guys came by in a little sports car and they just drove right past me. But they had the top down and I just yelled after 'em, "God damn you motherfuckers!" I just yelled it really loud. So they turned around and came back and got me and let me out at a Taco Bell in Redwood City. And then I met this nice guy there and went home with him. And when I woke up in the morning, I thought about...you know, eight o'clock and Neil Young and all that. And I just said "forget it" - and I went back to sleep.
Jasper:
Wow, what a long trek...that's an incredible story...
Nancy:
That was in 1973. And that's only part of that summer. I was 20. And it's a wonder that I wasn't killed. It really is. And what finally happened is, this guy picks me up in a club. And I can't even remember what city that was...But I got in to the backseat of his car, and I didn't realize that it was a two door car. I don't remember why I got in the backseat. But anyway, I got in the backseat, and he drove to a neighborhood. And then he started trying to put the move on me. And I said, "Well, let's just get out and smoke a cigarette and talk this over." And, as soon as he let me out of the car...see I had to get him to let me out of the car because it was just a two door car and I couldn't have gotten out. I just grabbed my purse and ran as fast as I could about two blocks away. And I knocked on some people's doors and told them that this guy was going to rape me. So they called the police and the police came. Anyway, it ended up that I was back at the police station, and they let me stay there all night in the jail cell so I could sleep. They didn't put me in jail, they just let me stay there. And one of them was so nice, he gave me a ham sandwich. And it was in a baggie his wife had packed for him. And I said, "Tell your wife that's the best thing I've seen come out of a baggie in a long time."
Anyway, I had my student ID with me from UAB. And it was a really pretty picture. And I looked pretty bad while I was in California because I had cut my hair really short. And it looked terrible all the time. And, you know...I didn't have pretty clothes or anything and I didn't wear makeup. Anyway, so the picture was real pretty. And so what they did, you know, they tried to get me to say that I would go home. But I wouldn't. I wouldn't say that I would go home. And so they started playing on my vanity, is what they did. And they said, "You look beautiful in this picture." And they said, "You look like hell now. You look terrible. At night we find girls in ditches all the time around here. Killed...just thrown into ditches all the time here."
And so between those two things they managed to convince me to go back home. So they got in touch with my parents, and my parents sent me money to come back to Birmingham, and I did go back to Birmingham. But I still kept on hitchhiking, I just hitchhiked the South all the time. And my parents house was in East Lake and I would just hitchhike back and forth from East Lake to Southside.
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CD
Order
Sweet Wreath presents the story of an Alabama artist with a rare gift for melody who channeled her experience into song after song like a true legend - fame and fortune be damned.
Nancy Richmond wrote over a hundred songs from the 1970s onward, exploring the emotional arcs of manic depression, relationships, and motherhood in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Her musical basis lay in the folk-rock zeitgeist of the late 60s, but she developed a home-spun style of her own that allowed her to sing with a sweet gentleness and humor. She wrote country-tinged love spells, lullabies about fantastic creatures, and songs about hitchhiking. Her artwork on the album cover depicts a time when she lived in a "magic cabin" in California during her travels. Back in Birmingham, she performed at local hangouts like Ranelli's and Cobb Lane Restaurant, at various parties and coffee houses, and on the street in Five Points South.
Aside from a couple demo tapes made in the 1980s and 90s (in the hopes of striking a record deal in Nashville), most of Nancy's music wasn't recorded until much later when she was in her 50s and 60s. Despite working in almost total obscurity, she kept her songs alive by playing them for herself and her family over the years, writing lyrics in a spiralbound notebook until it was completely full. After meeting experimental musician Jasper Lee in 2006, the two began recording Nancy's guitar and vocal songs with Jasper accompanying on various instruments and bringing in other players to expand her sound. Over the course of twelve years they documented around fifty of Nancy's songs and eventually compiled an album of favorites in 2018, making a small edition of CDs for family and friends. She called it Cheaha Mountain Rainbows after the highest peak in Alabama, a place that she loved to escape to and hike with her husband Brian in the cool days of autumn.
Cheaha Mountain Rainbows is now being released on Sweet Wreath in an updated form to include Nancy's early demos and offer a detailed chronicle of her musical world. The culmination of this project comes in the wake of Nancy's passing in the spring of 2024; it is an homage to a dear friend and kindred creative spirit. "I've always loved her songs and hoped to get Nancy's music out to more people," Jasper says. "She was so funny and captivating, a great storyteller. When I first met her, I was amazed at how many songs she had, and how she knew most of them from memory. Some of her music was written in the 70s, but hadn't ever been recorded, so it was like finding lost treasure...
music from a mythic era. It's interesting to think about Nancy carrying these around in her head for 25 or 30 years before we recorded them. That's pretty unusual and incredible. She seemed like a lost "lady of the canyon"...a singer in the vein of Linda Perhacs or Vashti Bunyan that went completely under the radar...even more so than they did. She never made the connections that might have led to even a small amount of exposure. She tried a couple times to find a way into a musical career, but was really wary of getting ripped off, and rightly so. One time she drove to a recording studio in Nashville with a demo tape and they said, "What's a nice girl like you doing trying to get into this business? This is a dirty business." She meticulously mailed all her lyrics to the U.S. copyright office so she had a record of when they were written, in case anyone ever tried to claim one of her songs as their own. She was confident in the quality of her material....just listen to Proud to Be My Man or Let's Play Pretend. Those sound like prime time at the Grand Ole Opry. My favorites are songs like Honey Bathing Lemon Rinds, where she gets into some mystical terrain and you're not quite sure what's going on, but it's totally enchanting.”
The Ballad of Magic Cabin
One of Nancy's classic songs "The Ballad of Magic Cabin" tells the epic story of her travels across the country and through California in 1973, as depicted on the album cover.
Jasper:
Tell me again about the Ballad of Magic Cabin.
Nancy:
Well, it's about when I was hitchhiking and I was trying to get to Neil Young's ranch. I ended up in the mountains, close to Santa Cruz and close to Los Gatos. Los Gatos means the city of cats and that's mentioned in the song. Anyway, I got stuck in this house with this guy who picked me up. And he gave me drugs. I thought I was just smoking pot, but it was something much stronger than that...it probably was PCP. I don't know for sure what he gave me, but I know it knocked me out. Anyway, he left and while he was gone I came to and these two guys came over, probably looking for drugs. And I left with them and went back to the cabin where they were living. And it was out in the country. Nothing was around there. And it belonged to some girl they knew. It was very crude and it had no running water and no electricity. They had built a shower outside that you could haul water to from somewhere and take a shower. But they didn't have much to eat. The only food they had was a big huge box full of granola; just plain granola, which is not very tasty at all. I tried eating different combinations of granola and water. And they just lived there, and their names were Donny and Charlie. And Donny was the drummer, and that's why there's drums in the picture. I don't really remember if he actually had drums or not. I do remember he had drum sticks, but I don't know if he had drums. Anyway...I fell in love...I was always falling in love. I fell in love with so many people Jasper. Anyway, I fell in love with Donny and really enjoyed living there. And then this girl came named Vicky, and she used to look with the eyes of a serpent....she stole him away from me (and I believe she stole my clothes too.) She didn't even care about him at all. The reason I knew that was because the guy who had given me the drugs that knocked me out came over to the cabin one day when she was there.
And she said, "Who is that?"
And I said, "That's who I was with before I was with Donny."
And she said, "You left him for Donny? Gosh, he's a fox."
And he was really good looking, but he was a big jerk. And when she said that I knew that she didn't care about Donny.
Jasper:
How long were you there for?
Nancy:
I was there off and on. I would hitchhike to other places and then come back there. I don't really remember how long...I would say probably off and on for about six weeks.
Jasper:
And is there a dog in this picture?
Nancy:
Yeah, JJ - his name is Jumpin' Jack Flash. And they called him JJ.
Jasper:
It looks like a really colorful dawg.
Nancy:
Well, that's imaginary...
Jasper:
So there's two women in the picture? Is that you?
Nancy:
Yeah, I'm the one that doesn't have the wild hair. It really looks nothing like me - but that's supposed to be me.
Jasper:
I see...I just love how that picture matches up with all the details of the song. And so after that you kept hitchhiking through California?
Nancy:
Yeah, I did...I finally got to Neil Young's ranch. My brother had told where it was. I started hitchhiking and I was manic as all get out. I thought I was invincible. Anyway, I had started out by going to Miami. My brother was in this group of people called the Arica Institute. And they had centers at different cities in the United States. And they were into meditation, and strange music, and massage, and things like that. And anyway, I don't know how I found them. I got in touch with them somehow in Miami, and I was staying there. And my parents were just at their wit's end, you know, because I was hitchhiking everywhere. And of course, they were worried sick about me. But I was just hell bent on getting to California - so they sent me money to fly to California to be with my brother, who lived in Los Angeles. So...little did they know, but as soon as I got with my brother...he knew Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He had met them in Big Sur. And I don't know where he met Neil Young...I mean, he might not have even met him, but he did know where he lived. So he told me where Neil Young lived. He said, "He lives at the end of Bear Gulch Trail, in Redwood City." So I just took off hitchhiking to Redwood City. And my brother didn't even try to stop me. So my poor parents, you know, they just wasted their money. I got a ride up there and the guy let me out at the end of Bear Gulch Trail. And so I walked up a path and I thought that I had found Neil Young's house, because the path had little signs with rainbows and things like that on it that looked like hippies was there. And I got up to the house and it was just a low ranch style house. And no kidding, there were about 100 cats sitting around the house. And they were motionless. They were just sitting there. And it was so bizarre. And anyway, I knew that wasn't the right place. So I went back down. And then I saw that there was another house that was to the right at the end of Bear Gulch Trail. And it had a fence that said "No Trespassing". Well, I just climbed over the fence and I started walking down the road. And so...these two cowboys in a jeep came driving slow up to me as I was walking down this long road...down to the house.
And they said, "This is private property. Didn't you see the sign?"
And I said, "Yeah, I saw the sign, but I came to be with a friend of my brother's." (That was stretching it...)
Anyway, they said, "Oh, and we bet we know who that friend is."
And I said, "Yeah..."
And they said, "You can't see him."
And I said, "Well I came all the way from Birmingham, Alabama."
And I said, "You know, a lot of people in Alabama don't even like Neil Young because of Southern Man, and Alabama, those songs that he wrote."
And they said, "Well, you still can't see him."
And I said, "Well, I know he has a new baby, and I could be the babysitter."
And they said, "That kid has plenty of babysitters." And so they told me...they said,
"I'll tell you what, you'll have to leave...but if you're here at eight o'clock in the morning, you can meet him."
And I said, "Okay." And so I tried to wait outside the fence. It was a gate, you know, like a big steel gate. Anyway, I tried to wait, but it was soooo cold. I knew that if I didn't walk I was gonna freeze. It was really cold in the mountains in California, even though it was summer. It was really super cold at night. And so I started walking...I walked for hours. It was a really long trail back to the main road. And I couldn't see any lights, I couldn't see any houses, and I just kept walking along and I kept thinking - "this is Bear Gulch Trail." And I was really terrified but I kept on walking. And one time this big animal crashed across the road in front of me. And that was probably a deer...But you know, it could have been a bear. Anyway, I was really scared. And I finally got back to the road and was standing there. Now the road was bad out in the country too - it was just a little two-lane highway. And I think I hiked from sunset to about midnight. That's how long it took me to walk that distance.
And so these two guys came by in a little sports car and they just drove right past me. But they had the top down and I just yelled after 'em, "God damn you motherfuckers!" I just yelled it really loud. So they turned around and came back and got me and let me out at a Taco Bell in Redwood City. And then I met this nice guy there and went home with him. And when I woke up in the morning, I thought about...you know, eight o'clock and Neil Young and all that. And I just said "forget it" - and I went back to sleep.
Jasper:
Wow, what a long trek...that's an incredible story...
Nancy:
That was in 1973. And that's only part of that summer. I was 20. And it's a wonder that I wasn't killed. It really is. And what finally happened is, this guy picks me up in a club. And I can't even remember what city that was...But I got in to the backseat of his car, and I didn't realize that it was a two door car. I don't remember why I got in the backseat. But anyway, I got in the backseat, and he drove to a neighborhood. And then he started trying to put the move on me. And I said, "Well, let's just get out and smoke a cigarette and talk this over." And, as soon as he let me out of the car...see I had to get him to let me out of the car because it was just a two door car and I couldn't have gotten out. I just grabbed my purse and ran as fast as I could about two blocks away. And I knocked on some people's doors and told them that this guy was going to rape me. So they called the police and the police came. Anyway, it ended up that I was back at the police station, and they let me stay there all night in the jail cell so I could sleep. They didn't put me in jail, they just let me stay there. And one of them was so nice, he gave me a ham sandwich. And it was in a baggie his wife had packed for him. And I said, "Tell your wife that's the best thing I've seen come out of a baggie in a long time."
Anyway, I had my student ID with me from UAB. And it was a really pretty picture. And I looked pretty bad while I was in California because I had cut my hair really short. And it looked terrible all the time. And, you know...I didn't have pretty clothes or anything and I didn't wear makeup. Anyway, so the picture was real pretty. And so what they did, you know, they tried to get me to say that I would go home. But I wouldn't. I wouldn't say that I would go home. And so they started playing on my vanity, is what they did. And they said, "You look beautiful in this picture." And they said, "You look like hell now. You look terrible. At night we find girls in ditches all the time around here. Killed...just thrown into ditches all the time here."
And so between those two things they managed to convince me to go back home. So they got in touch with my parents, and my parents sent me money to come back to Birmingham, and I did go back to Birmingham. But I still kept on hitchhiking, I just hitchhiked the South all the time. And my parents house was in East Lake and I would just hitchhike back and forth from East Lake to Southside.
